Jamel Shabazz Quotes

#1. I scored one film by myself, which was the hardest thing I think I've ever done.

Jenny Lewis

#2. When I approach a person, I feel a certain way. If I don't feel that way, I'm not going to approach that individual. "I see something in you" - I want the person to know that.

Jamel Shabazz

#3. They were not mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, they were absent in the Constitution and they were invisible in the new political democracy. They were the women of early America.

Howard Zinn

#4. I wanted to go amongst gangbangers, to understand this war they were fighting amongst each other. I wanted to document it, [also] to show the human side of it.

Jamel Shabazz

#5. I think that's what the war photography did for me. It showed me the human side of people and how certain circumstances can change people's lives.

Jamel Shabazz

#6. I think that photography has allowed me to have a voice. I used to stutter, and once I overcame that struggle, it felt good to tell people they were beautiful and special.

Jamel Shabazz

#7. I do believe in angels and I believe that a lot of these people I'm supposed to meet. The photograph serves as evidence; it causes me to reflect on when I met this person.

Jamel Shabazz

#8. Photography is humbling, it really is, and it really allows for me to atone for some of the missteps I've made throughout the course of my life.

Jamel Shabazz

#9. The images of war inspired me to create, to go to different situations and communities, to document the human side of people, to show a side that we don't see.

Jamel Shabazz

#10. There is just something about the common being. My education pretty much came from the streets, just connecting with people, different cultures. I gained the wealth just engaging at that level. I'm still like that. I continue to document everyday people versus the stars.

Jamel Shabazz

#11. I place myself in situations where a lot of people are going to be, and bring a particular body of work that reflects the people already there. You have to study your subject.

Jamel Shabazz

#12. When a photographer or a person sees your beauty, your inner beauty, it makes you feel special like, "Wow, someone saw that within me."

Jamel Shabazz

#13. What I strive to do through my work, is to teach compassion. You need to have a lot of it, in this day and time, and it's lacking.

Jamel Shabazz

#14. Liberation was in the very scale of the city: a goldfish bowl one could never grow to fit.

Sheridan Hay

#15. What you must accept as a parent is that you cannot always be there for your child without sometimes ruining everything.

Robert Breault

#16. For me, the stars are the invisible people on the street that people don't really get a chance to know.

Jamel Shabazz

#17. The photograph is to a great degree evidence of the conversation I had with the person. It's a part of my visual diary.

Jamel Shabazz

#18. I read a recent statistic that eighty-seven percent of women are dissatisfied with themselves, and over forty-seven percent of men. My work is visu-medicine to heal people and see beauty within people.

Jamel Shabazz

#19. Sometimes we are just divided, but we still, for the most part, we have similar hopes and dreams.

Jamel Shabazz

#20. Philip Jones Griffith documented the Vietnam War, and through his images that were published in Time Life Magazine, it showed me the horrors of war and at that time, I wanted to be a war photographer, based off his work.

Jamel Shabazz

#21. At some point you do not need to talk to have a conversation. The conversation exists whether you have it or not. It continues silently in a parallel dimension of the marriage. They both pause to let it run its course toward another stalemate.

Chris Bachelder

#22. When people are too well off they always begin to long for something new.

Jacob Grimm

#23. I remember growing up and hearing the word "ugly" a lot. "I'm ugly." "She ugly." "He ugly." I hated it then, and I hate it now. I go past physical beauty; I tell people they have a beautiful spirit and that is something different.

Jamel Shabazz

#24. Charlie X)? Those were the hints, as far as I'm concerned.

Nichelle Nichols

#25. My camera is my compass; it's guided me to so many different places.

Jamel Shabazz

#26. The Bible is very clear that God has a purpose. But even if I know that purpose, I can't fulfill it if I'm out of shape.

Rick Warren

#27. The majority of the people I've taken photographs of, I've had conversations with. "What are your goals and aspirations?" "What are you about?" It's not just about me capturing the image; I want to know what you are about.

Jamel Shabazz

#28. When you look at my photos, just look into the eyes of my subjects. The eyes say so much.

Jamel Shabazz

#29. For the most part, as a society, we are not happy with ourselves.

Jamel Shabazz

#30. You will receive what you ask for no more, no less

Mark Allen